Archive of Our Own ^beta

Haruitsuki Abeno was simply tired. He had been feeling a bit lethargic all week long. It was like his energy was just being sapped right out of his body. The very first few days Abeno felt faint.

On the third day, he had collapsed. The next time he awoke was in the nurse’s office. A set of purple eyes met his golden. It was a white furball. Abeno jumped back a bit. What was that thing ? It wouldn’t leave him alone no matter how much he yanked it.

He tried to ignore it. Keyword: tried. His body was just feeling sluggish, in stark contrast of the fuzzball somehow growing larger. At this point, he was pretty desperate to rid the weird hairball. As he crept down the hall, a faint colored flier stuck out from underneath the mountain of club posters.

“Yokai Exorcism - Call XXX-XXX-XXXX ”.

Somehow, the flier sounded kind of sketchy. But at this point, he was sick of this hairball.

The phone rang as he waited patiently.

“Hello! How may I be of service to you!” He head an overly cheery voice.

“I saw the poster on the wall.”

“Oh! I wasn’t sure anyone would call. I’ll be ready to hear from you right away!”

That sounded extremely suspicious. But he gave a short response.

“By the way? Where are you right now?” The voice inquired.

“Nurse’s office.” Abeno replied.

“Ok! Well just open that door!”

At this point, he was more than confused. What good would opening the door do? Is he going to get any further instruction? This was starting to sound more like a scam.

He reached his hand down to slide the door open revealing an old japanese styled tea room. In the center sat a cheery blue haired boy in a dark blue kimono.

“Have a seat!” He said smiling.

Abeno entered the room and the hairball suddenly shrunk. What weirdo place was he?

“I’m Hanae Ashiya! The current master of the Mononokean! When do you wish to start working?”

“Work? Ah, I called for you to get rid of this hairball for me.”

Ashiya looked a bit taken back.

“... oh. Well the wait list is in 10 days. What’s your name?” He said, his eyes clearly a bit colder than before.

“Haruitsuki Abeno.”

The master paused for a bit. “Abeno huh? Hmm…” He bent down to take a closer look.

“You know what? I’ve changed my mind! We can do it now.”

Finally! He can have a normal day. They exited the room through the small door and were now on the roof of the school.

The hairball grew to 10x his original size.

“That’s pretty large.” Ashiya commented.

He proceeded to start blowing up what appeared to be a beach ball.

“... what is this? A joke?” Abeno said annoyed.

A loud sigh exited Ashiya’s mouth. “I knew it. You’re just like all of them, huh?”

He had a sullen face. But quickly hid it with a look of excitement as he comforted the hairball, urging it to play. It finally left his body.

It had been a while since he was able to actually move around without feeling faint every two seconds.

“Sigh. Why do you think he wanted to stay with you?”

“I don’t know.”

“Animals that were kept by human become yokai after they die. Most of the time, they don’t realize it and keep trying to get the attention of people. Most people can’t see yokai. And so he was happy when he realized that you could see it.” Ashiya’s eyes looked bluer than ever.

“This guy was probably sick of feeling lonely. When he realized you could see him, he clung onto you for fear of being abandoned.”

Abeno didn’t know what to say. He didn’t think about how the little creature was feeling, he felt a bit embarrassed. “I… is there anything I can do to help him?”

“Well, you could play with him for a bit!” Ashiya’s face turned around and threw the beach ball at him.

The blond haired was confused but quietly complied. After half a day of running around, the hairball was finally back to his original size.

Ashiya muttered a couple words and a door adorn with two foxes appeared on the side of the wall.

Abeno at this point was a bit reluctant to let the hairball go but bid it farewell.

“Ok! Now you’ll need to work for me part-time!” Ashiya’s voice cuts in as he clapped his hands.

“... haaa??”

“Tomorrow, we have a job so show up early! Good luck!”

“Wait, why?” He wondered.

“Well, you skipped the line and hired my services. So you’re going to need to pay me. Since I figured that you don’t have any underworld dollars, you just need to work for me! Please don’t blame me!” He said a bit sheepishly.

Abeno pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Fine.”

The End